DIY Quilting 101 | How to start a simple Quilt

So, I was cleaning out my craft closet and found a bunch of fabric I had from my quilting days. It’s been at least a year since I made a quilt and I think it’s time that I put my sewing skills back to use. I’m excited to start back creating quilts and of course I want to share this experience with y’all. I find quilting to be a very suttle hobby. It’s relaxing and fun to do in your spare time. So I will be instructing you on how to make your own simple quilt.

I sew all of my quilts by hand only using a sewing machine when necessary. Don’t worry if you’re not the world’s best sewer. I taught myself how to sew and quilt. My best advice with this skill is practice makes perfect.

What you will need to start:

Basic sewing skills

A cutting mat or a hard surface to cut on

Rotary Cutter or Fabric Scissors

Marker or fabric pencil

Patchwork shapes or Rotary Rulers

Cotton Quilting Fabric (4 to 6 different patterns)

Cotton thread

Sewing needle

For starters, you want to find or create a quilt pattern. If you are up for the challenge you can free hand draw/ layout your own pattern or you can find free patterns and measurements on Pinterest. For this project, I created my own pattern (shown in picture below). I used graph paper to sketch out the shapes exactly how I wanted them and mapped out which fabrics to use. I will be using 5 different cotton fabric designs for this quilt.

After you’ve selected a pattern, it’s time to layout your fabrics and start cutting. You want to make sure that you cut all your pieces in the beginning so that you don’t have to stop and cut once you’ve started sewing. For my sketched pattern I labeled each patch with a number to determine which fabric design I will be using.

Pictured in my pattern you can see that each box is labeled with a number 1 through 5. I marked my fabrics 1 through 5. Using the measurements in my pattern, I start with #1 cutting all the different sizes I will need with that fabric design then moved on to #2 and so on until all my fabric is cut. Use a marker or fabrice pencil to trace your lines for cutting. Once you have everything cut, I suggest laying it out on a flat service so you can see how your quilt will look once it’s all put together.

Now that you have all your pieces cut out, start at the top and sew everything together piece by piece according to your pattern. If you are a pro on the sewing machine, you may find it easier and faster to use a sewing machine. But I like to hand sew my pieces together (at least for this part). This may take you some time. So don’t get frustrated. Take you time and sew at your own pace.

The cutting process took me a little over an hour to do. I spent about 2 hours sewing my pieces together in one night and completed the first half of this quilting pattern. In the next blog I will be showing the finished results of sewing all the fabric pieces together for this quilt and how to add a border and the backing to complete a simple quilt.

I hope you are as excited as I am. TELL ME (in the comment section below) how it goes. Have you ever made a quilt before? Or are you just getting started with this new hobby?